Everyone is talking about how Timberlake — be it sarcastically or drunkenly or both — “praised” Joe Buck’s announcing abilities multiple times. But whether or not that was really a slam on Buck, I don’t think that was even the most awkward part of it. No, I found the most awkward part of it was JT’s ode to beer and his praising of it as “the perfect food.”

Justin Timberlake: It goes with the hot dog, it goes with nachos, it goes with peanuts. Beer’s perfect. Beer never got mad at me because I didn’t call beer back.

Mark Grace: That’s a very good point. That is a very good point.

He said this, remember, to Mark Grace, who was busted for a DUI a month ago. And on a broadcast which, about ten minutes before, had recounted the untimely death of Nick Adenhart at the hands of a drunk driver. Of course, given that the very first pitch of the game was sponsored by Budweiser, I guess mixed-messages involved with the relationship between alcohol and baseball are something with which Fox and MLB aren’t too uncomfortable.

I did feel kind of bad for Grace, though, whose lawyer probably doesn’t need him yukking it up with pop stars about the glories of beer at the moment.

Buchholz, 33, was acquired by the Phillies from the Red Sox in December 2016, but he made only two starts before an MRI revealed he had a partial tear of his right flexor pronator mass. He underwent surgery in April and missed the rest of the season.